Love in Motion
by OO7-Bond-Girl
Summary: Peach feels heartbreak from the terraces. Very Loosely based of Super Strikers. One Shot


**Love in Motion.**

**Summary**: Peach feels heartbreak from the terraces. Very Loosely based of Super Strikers. One Shot – Could possible have a sequel. I do not own any of the characters...etc etc

Walking out onto the terraces, Peach stared out onto the pitch in amazement. Quite a breath-taking scene lay out in front of her. The spine chilling chants from the fans that surrounded her only captivated this awe-inspiring view more. Yes, the Underground Stadium was certainly something.

Looking away from the grey pitch, Peach took time to watch the two sets of fans. One half of the stadium decked out in red replica shirts, waving banners and flags. They were obviously the Mario supporters. On the opposite side to the hero's fan base, an equally large gathering of fans had turned out. Yellow replica shirts, balloons and blow up bob-bombs were all present and correct as Wario's fans booed and hollered over at Mario's fans. The atmosphere was electric and Peach just knew today's game was going to be simply amazing.

Listening to the overwhelming noise coming from both sets of supporters, Peach was thankful for sitting in a separate area from them. She didn't really want to be recognised by anyone and being one of the most famous people in the Mushroom Kingdom, she was most certainly doomed to be noticed at some point. This was why she had arrived wearing a pink baseball cap and large shades. Hopefully no one would pay any attention to just an average soccer fan.

Peach looked at her watch, they were fifteen minutes away from kick-off. The supporters were getting restless; this was an important game after all. Who ever won today's game would be crowned number one. Peach hoped it would be Mario. She would be able to take Wario's consistent gloating.

Even though she was separated from the masses of fans that had turned up to watch the game, Peach wasn't alone. There were plenty of executives and other important people about. Obviously they had put a lot of money into developing the league and wanted to see how the biggest fixture of the season ended. None of them paid her any attention, so she wasn't bothered about them.

She got as close to the pitch as it was humanly possible. Leaning forwards against the railing she took one last glance around the 35,000-seated stadium. She couldn't get over incredible the atmosphere was.

"Impressive isn't it?" Came a quiet drawl from behind her. She needed not have turned round, she already knew who it was.

"It's alright… I suppose," She answered despite the fact she did agree that it was an impressive stadium.

She remained leaning forwards on the railing and paid the newcomer no more attention. She knew it was Waluigi and decided that it was best not to get into a debate with him at any cost. However she found it hard to ignore him, when he seemed intent on standing next to her.

"Mind if I stand here?" He asked with an annoying smirk plastered across his face. Peach wasn't going to rise to his bait and nodded curtly.

"If you insist,"

The red crowd to the left of them suddenly stood up and began cheering as loudly as they could. Mario and his team had now emerged out onto the pitch, the red-capped plumber waving to his adoring fans. The yellow side of the stadium immediately started hissing and booing in response to the opposition's applause.

A minute later and the roles had reversed; Wario and his team had run out on to the pitch and now faced a barrage of jeers from the red fans. Wario gave them a rude hand gesture before turning to his own supporters.

"... Honestly..." Peach mumbled as she shook her head. From her left hand side she was sure she could here Waluigi laugh. Peach looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She was quite surprised to see that for some reason he had made some sort of effort. Seeing him in a shirt and tie made it impossible for her to call him out on it.

"I see you made an effort in the wardrobe department today…" She said with a hint of amusement in her voice. Despite talking to him, she still didn't face him properly. He however looked directly at the blonde Princess and smirked.

"I see you haven't…" Peach ground her teeth in frustration. Why did she have to speak to him?

"If you must know I was in a board meeting…" He told her. Peach snorted with laughter, she highly doubted her had been to a 'board meeting' of any kind.

"A board meeting? You?" She questioned.

"Yes actually. Here in this very stadium," Peach said nothing. She wasn't going to argue with him.

"Seeing as I co-own it, it only seemed right, " He said, clearly feeling the need to brag about owning the stadium. Peach rolled her eyes.

"You co-own the stadium?" She asked, taking her eyes away from the pitch and fixing them on Waluigi. He nodded in response.

"I also helped design it – from the metal pitch to the seating," He said smugly.

"I'm impressed… and all I thought you were capable of is bullying Luigi…" Peach said with a sarcastic smile. She felt bad for being sarcastic; it wasn't normally in her, but being in his company that seemed to drag her down to his level. Waluigi scowled at her and then began to look around.

"Speaking of said wimp, where is he?"

"He is seated in the stands…with Daisy," Peach answered, she wasn't entirely sure as to why she even mentioned daisy's name. For some reason she felt compelled to push the knife in further. Waluigi winced at the mention of Daisy's name and wished that peach would refrain from any further comments.

He was about to make his disapproval of Peach's use of Daisy when the yellow side of the stadium erupted out in cheers. Both Peach and Waluigi looked out onto the pitch. Wario had just scored, putting his team one – nil up. She looked for Mario and eventually found him; he was lying on the floor in a daze. It would seem that he had collided with the electric barrier, surrounding the pitch.

"..Poor Mario.." Peach sympathized.

"Well that's what you get for thinking you can mess with Wario," Waluigi said with a cruel laugh. Peach was going to respond but as she watched the intense match she saw Mario dart past two of Wario's teammates and head into the path of the larger then life captain him self. Her hands gripped into the railing as tightly as she could as Mario tried to dash past Wario. Wario tried to head butt Mario, but Mario was way to fast for the bulky villain. Mario swept past him with no problems. Wario however couldn't stop himself from going forward and collided with the electric barrier.

Peach yelled out in delight as Mario found space and had time to convert his attack into a super strike. The goalkeeper stood no chance and Mario's super strike gained his side two points.

"Yes!" Peach shrieked in delight. Waluigi stood with his arms folded and scowled. He turned to Peach who was obviously thrilled.

"You know, you never did say why you decided to dress down?" He said bitterly to her. She stopped smiling and looked at him in bewilderment.

"What?"

"Are you hiding from someone?" He asked with a bitter glint on his eye. Peach wondered as to what he was getting at.

"What are you going on about now?" Peach snapped.

Waluigi was about to reply when once again Mario scored a super strike. Peach watched with a smile as Mario ran past where they were sitting and waved in her direction. Peach didn't wave back; she didn't want to draw attention to herself.

"You and him aren't together yet are you…?" Waluigi asked. Peach looked at him a little sheepishly.

"No…"

"That's why you didn't wave back…or is it because of the rumours?" He asked her slyly. Peach ignored him. He was just trying to get to her. However he continued.

"Don't tell me you haven't heard?"

Peach sighed. He was never going to shut up at this rate.

"What rumours? Why are you even bothered about rumours?" Peach yelled at him. With his hands he tried to calm her down, she was scary when she was angry.

"Fine okay, but you wont like it. Apparently Mario got in contract with Pauline…" Peach's face dropped the instant Pauline's name was mentioned, however Waluigi assumed she was in the dark about Pauline, "..You know, the girl Mario used to da-OUCH!"

"I know who she is you moron!" Peach hissed through gritted teeth as she stamped on his foot.

"Well excuse me…." He said sarcastically.

"Shut up," Peach mumbled. It was just hear say that Pauline was now in the Mushroom Kingdom. That's all it was, hear say.

During their conversation, Wario had managed a super strike, leaving the score at 4-3 to his team. Waluigi cheered with the rest of his fans. Peach started to sulk, but it wasn't long before Mario scored his teams third super strike. Peach smiled triumphantly and turned to Waluigi to rub it in. However his eyes were fixed on Mario, who once again ran past them waving in their direction

Peach followed his eyesight and smiled as Mario ran past and waved. She turned to Waluigi again and noticed that he was now looking at something else – someone else. There was another woman standing near them and Peach's heart sunk. It was Pauline. She knew it was because she had seen a photo of her at some point and recognised her slim frame instantly.

Hopefully Mario didn't know she was there. But then Pauline started to wave back at Mario. A swift feeling of nausea swept through Peach's entire body as she finally realised the truth. The rumours of Mario and Pauline were true. Peach's head dropped as she tried to come to terms with what she had just witnessed. It was just as well she had a cap on; otherwise someone was sure to have seen a tear slip down her cheek.

Waluigi watched the blonde Princess as she tried to hide the fact that she was devastated. This was all nothing to do with him. She would have found out anyway. He decided to ignore the quietly sobbing Princess and watched the game. After half an hour the score was twenty to seventeen to Wario's team and even though he should have been happy about his brother being in the lead he couldn't help but glance over at Peach, whose head had remained down through out the half hour.

"Peach…?" He asked, wondering what she would do next. He half expected her to cry uncontrollably or for her to go over and clobber Pauline. What he didn't expect was for her to fly off the handle at him. The normally composed Peach flew into a rage at him.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Do you enjoy seeing other people' hearts break? Do like causing people suffering? Honestly you are the most vile, cruel, twisted excuse for a human I have ever come across! Just because you don't understand what it's like to love someone doesn't give you the right to trample over people!" She screamed at him as she slapped him continuously.

Eventually she stopped slapping him and turned away from him. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her ragged breathing down. She hadn't hurt him, he was much stronger then that, but he was a little startled by her assault on him. An unusual feeling of guilt hit him and he felt a little bad for her. It wasn't long before he heard her cry again.

He knew it would surprise her to know that he did understand how it felt. He moved closer to the distraught Princess and put his hand on her shoulder. She relaxed under his touch and slowly her tears dried up.

"For what it's worth I know how you feel…" He muttered sincerely. Peach wiped away her remaining tear and looked at him questioningly.

"I…I used to be…I…. oh…never mind," He finished off somewhat lamely. Peach looked at him and sort of knew what he was getting at.

"What..?" Peach asked quietly. For once she saw that Waluigi was being honest, it was something she wasn't used to off the younger Wario brother. In fact he was normally recluse when it came to talking about himself. She realised she actually didn't know much about him.

"I don't really want to talk about it," He told her with a sigh.

"But…" She started to say.

"Do you ever listen to what anyone ever says? I said I don't want to talk about it so you can keep your nose out!" He snapped at her and then turned his back on her. Peach was a little taken back but she was used to it by now.

She now realised that he had been in love with Daisy and she wondered if he was still in love with her now. He was now watching the remainder of the game, so Peach stood next him and said nothing more.

The game had five minutes left on the clock and it was still a pretty close game. Mario's team were now winning twenty-three to twenty and both sets of fans were screaming with encouragement.

"Waluigi…" Peach said quietly, trying to get his attention. Without looking at her he did reply.

"What…?"

"Talk to me…you never talk to anyone. It might do you good…" Peach said hopefully. She wished that for once he would just drop his guard. She had always sort of pitied him; he was part of their 'group' yet she knew nothing about him. He was always the outsider and no one paid him attention.

"I wont feel better, so how's about no?" Was his only reply to her annoying nagging.

"You were in love with Daisy weren't you?"

"Peach…I really don't want to discuss this…"

"C'mon admit it! You were in love with her!" She said feeling a little exasperated. She knew he had liked Daisy, but she thought it was just a mere phase.

"Fine, yes I was in love with her…happy now?" He barked at her. This time he turned to face her and she could see the anguish in his eyes.

"Are you still?" Peach continued.

"No,"

"Right…"

"I'm not in love with her…she has Luigi! They're happy! Everyone is happy except me! Just leave it!" He cried out bitterly. Peach coughed indignantly.

"Ok, except you as well…But you have the potential to be happy, it's not like I do…" He said glumly.

Without warning Peach advanced on Waluigi. She rested her hand on his arm and smiled warmly.

"See! You are able to act like a human!" She said with a grin. It was the first time she had smiled since finding out about Mario and Pauline.

"Yeah, well don't tell anyone," He said with an amused grin.

The full time whistle went and Wario's team won. Peach watched as Mario ran the length of the pitch and jumped over the barrier. He ran straight in to the arms of Pauline. Peach felt a rush of heartache as they embraced. She felt like crying again but she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm okay," Peach mumbled, as she turned round to face Waluigi.

"Peach?" Came a familiar voice. She spun round to come face to face with Mario and Pauline.

Mario could tell she'd been crying and he eyed Waluigi suspiciously.

"You okay Peach?" He asked concerned. She looked him square in the eyes and gave a solid answer.

"I'm fine thank you, Mario…. erm see you later Waluigi…oh and thanks," She said as she walked off with her head held high. Peach was a strong woman; she would get over it in time.

Mario and Pauline walked off as well. Leaving Waluigi by his self. On leaving the stadium he over heard comments by the executives.

"Well that's was an interesting game…" One said to his acquaintance.

"Yes, it'll certainly be remembered,"

Waluigi couldn't agree more. He would remember this game for years to come. He had finally connected with someone, that wasn't his brother. A weight had shifted from his shoulders and he had now found a new respect for Peach.

Peach probably felt the same way. She would remember the game for it's heartache but also for the newfound friendship she had struck up with Waluigi. She was certain that it wouldn't be the last time they reached and understanding.


End file.
